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Topic: The Power of 10 Dynasty (Read 13105 times)

So currently you have to wait for the Heir to reach YA before you can move them out, but it's possible to finish your requirements with the current generation long before that. In the interest of not having to wait around 20+ days for a sim to age up to Young Adult between each generation, would it be possible to change the ruling on aging up the heir early, and allow it if and only if all requirements for the previous generation have been met?

So currently you have to wait for the Heir to reach YA before you can move them out, but it's possible to finish your requirements with the current generation long before that. In the interest of not having to wait around 20+ days for a sim to age up to Young Adult between each generation, would it be possible to change the ruling on aging up the heir early, and allow it if and only if all requirements for the previous generation have been met?

Teens only take about 2 weeks to age up, not 20 days. My own opinion is that the Dynasty challenges are not designed for players who enjoy min-maxing, but for players who like to develop their Sims. In the Sims 3 DecaDynasty Challenge, which this is partly similar to, players had to wait until their Sims became Adults before they could move out. But that's only my opinion. What do others say?

The dynasties are all made with different playstyles in mind. I dont think we should change any age up restrictions in this. (I am the powerplayer that pushes as fast as possible through even though I know I must wait on the next generation to age up. Instead I use the extra teenage time to make my next generation better to handle their next tasks )

Yeah, Dek, sorry, my friend, but I completely agree with Marian and Lena. Dynasties are about the long haul and being patient. Tournament challenges are short and sweet with things like aging up kids typically allowed. Plus, this Dynasty has been live now for more than a month with many players already deep into their files and stories. It's not really right to allow aging up at this point.

So currently you have to wait for the Heir to reach YA before you can move them out, but it's possible to finish your requirements with the current generation long before that. In the interest of not having to wait around 20+ days for a sim to age up to Young Adult between each generation, would it be possible to change the ruling on aging up the heir early, and allow it if and only if all requirements for the previous generation have been met?

I'm like you @dethdukk - I like to finish the requirements (although I don't rush through them like a challenge) and then move on. With my first generation, my founder only had to throw 3 more parties when my heir aged to teen, and those could have easily been done by then, I just drew it out. My teen heir had all positive trait values, was a Top Notch Toddler, and had completed all four child aspirations. I didn't really want him to accomplish more, because that would just mean that he'd likely meet all his requirements sooner. I had a few things I wanted to do in those last two weeks, but mostly I had the game on high speed and just let all the sims do whatever they wanted . . . .really fast . . . . for those last two weeks. I worked/played on my other computer and just kept an eye on them, and only intervened if a need was getting close to red. That helped get through the extra time fairly quickly.

I do really like this challenge, and find it really fun to play - the only part that doesn't appeal to me is all the extra time that isn't needed to meet the goals. I'm trying to manage that better with the second generation - moving him much slower on the requirements and playing more to the story. But I did make a mistake right off with Gen 2 - I started playing to the story BEFORE getting started on the Gen 3 heir, and then realized that's just going to make more time at the end of this generation, so I'll probably be needing that speed option again.

Just wondering if The Team has any ruling on this and if we have to count our sims days out so everyone has the standard age lengths or just allow the game to randomize?

I agree with Marian, Play -- let the game just randomize them. Forcing players to count days would kind of be a pain.

Yep, shame though as I like the challenge of min/maxing and the waiting around on each gen is just a no go for me. Was considering a play through where time was the factor in a 'win'. But it's a really great challenge regardless of my min/maxing compulsion.

@Metropolis Man : thanks. She got bee stung several times and finally spawned a take a bath for uncomfortable. I've never seen this before.

@oshizu: Me either. But she spawned a take bath thing. I'm not going to count it as there are so many other whims but it was interesting to see it crop up.

In general I like the slower pace, (if you make it that way), of dynasty play. There are times, few and far between, where I hit speed but mostly I play on speed one or two. I really don't want to miss anything they are doing and I often will on speed 3. I don't often do challenges because they have to be faster and it makes it less fun for me, but I appreciate the challenges and often follow along with what folks are doing to win. I have a general story line in mind and I try to follow that but often those guys lead me down a different path, which is perfectly ok. I'm too much of a perfectionist to rush through anything anymore. Comes with getting old I think. lol

@Metropolis Man, @sdhoey, @MarianT : Ok, with latest Windows update all my save files for this dynasty were eaten alive. There is nothing, not even the founder saved in my library, left. Even Mrs. Flynn couldn't help. So basically this is a fail, but the only fault I have is my stupidity in not making a second, back up file. I don't want the story to end but I think I may have a way to salvage it without sending the original part to the Graveyard if the team will agree. I propose evil happened, first family totally destroyed, BUT there was an unknown offshoot who produced over the centuries by means of Magic, (Yes, I'll have to use the new Magic stuff with my founder), the person who will resurrect the lineage and fulfill the quest by doing the Power of 10 Dynasty stuff. So, what say you? Do I just ditch the whole thing or give the story telling a whirl?

Well, obviously my question was a no brainer. If your founder, spouse and heir are dead, (disappeared or whatever), the story is over. I did find an obscure file with the founder's "body" in it before play. Must have saved it in cas. So I'm going to try a do over and see where it leads. So please add Always Time for Tea to the graveyard and I will start A Fresh Brew if that is ok. Thanks Team for your patience.

If it's already been discussed and I missed it, I apologize, but has there been a definitive ruling on Realm of Magic stuff. Can our sims become spellcasters. I haven't played the game much at all recently, but I would like to try this gameplay out with this.

So, I'm planning on having a go at this! It seems approachable enough for my first attempt at a dynasty, plus it's the hot new thing in terms of challenges - what's not to like? I've played a little dry run of a first generation, partly to get a handle on what I need to achieve, but mainly to acquaint myself with what normal gamespeed is like, and things went well enough. I mean, I didn't actually meet all the requirements in time, but that was only 'cause I knew I was only playing for the one gen...

Many of the questions that crossed my mind during the test have been asked and answered here before: spouses/spares can max anything, community lots can be lightly edited, life extension is permitted, festivals count separately for lot visits, gender customisation is fine, switchining aspirations for points is okay and clubs are allowed. Somewhat inevitably, though, I have new questions...

Are there any restrictions on when a spouse can move into the household? Or, rather, can they move in the moment I'm sold on them becoming the spouse? Personally, I'm not likely to do so until they are formally dating my main sim, but I wouldn't mind knowing if it could be done earlier, just in case I find myself in circumstances where it might make sense...

Though the topic of "what lots can I add" has been brought up many times already, I'm here to dredge it back up again! Specifically, I had a crack at fleshing out Newcrest using the metric of "any Maxis lot that provides something the built-in ones elsewhere don't is allowed", and in amongst the spas and restaurants I found a pair of lots that occupy something of a grey area. Luxe Health Club, from the Spa Day pack, is listed as a gym but has plenty of spa equipment as well, and Vital Climb Gym... well, okay, it's a gym, and I really don't think it should count, but I was desperate enough for 40x30 lots that I justified its inclusion by it being the only Maxis lot to offer climbing walls and now I'd like someone to tell me that's a bit of a stretch...

When it comes to mods, I usually play with a few that don't affect gameplay and thus I would assume are okay: CleanUI (a return to the previous colour-coded one), Smaller Mosaic, TidyCAS, More CAS Columns and a handful of sliders for increasing the diversity of body shapes, facial details, height and so on. But then there are two others...

I like RoBurky's Fitness Controls since it gives you the power to change both the fat/muscle range for sims and their "metabolic rate", so to speak. By default, it slows things down, so that weight and muscle changes make a lot more sense when playing with long lifespans... or even normal ones, judging by my test game! As far as I know, sims' fat/muscle levels have no effect on the gameplay and are purely cosmetic; they're not even tied to the Fitness skill, I think, but since I'm not hugely experienced in the game's mechanics I'm willing to be corrected. The only thing I could think of was the Athletic aspiration and its goal of attaining "maximum body potential" - a little testing suggests this triggers when a sim reaches +80% muscle, so as long as the mod is set up to increase the range by more than the metabolic rate is lowered (which it is by default*), this goal will actually be harder to reach!

The other mod I use is, on the face of it, a no-go: MCCC. But, due to its modular nature, it's possible to strip out all of the game-changing stuff (story progression, automatic repopulation, etc.) while keeping the basics in play. The main feature I'd love to be able to keep is its autosave, but there's also the Dresser module that helps stops townies from being so unfashionable (though without the Population module I'm not sure how much it can do), aging and death notifications for NPCs ('cause I like to keep tabs on how the worlds are doing and it saves having to trawl the Unplayed Households list every now and again) and automatically pausing on arriving at a lot (because seriously). All that said, while I am reasonably confident in my ability to set the mod up so that it only does permissible things, you'd only have my word for it, and it's entirely possible that it'll act in ways that I can't anticipate or even see, so it would be entirely understandable if it were considered verboten. I probably wouldn't even ask after it if it weren't for that incredibly appealing autosave...

...that's an awful lot of text there, considering that none of my issues are all too big, so thanks in advance for any answers/counsel/healthy doses of realism!

(*specifically, a base-game percentage point is weighted by 4/7 and is covered at 1/3 of the rate, thus taking ~1.7x as long, and my current settings have the weighting as 2/3 and the rate as 2/5, which would be only marginally faster than that)

So, I'm planning on having a go at this! It seems approachable enough for my first attempt at a dynasty, plus it's the hot new thing in terms of challenges - what's not to like? I've played a little dry run of a first generation, partly to get a handle on what I need to achieve, but mainly to acquaint myself with what normal gamespeed is like, and things went well enough. I mean, I didn't actually meet all the requirements in time, but that was only 'cause I knew I was only playing for the one gen...

Many of the questions that crossed my mind during the test have been asked and answered here before: spouses/spares can max anything, community lots can be lightly edited, life extension is permitted, festivals count separately for lot visits, gender customisation is fine, switchining aspirations for points is okay and clubs are allowed. Somewhat inevitably, though, I have new questions...

Are there any restrictions on when a spouse can move into the household? Or, rather, can they move in the moment I'm sold on them becoming the spouse? Personally, I'm not likely to do so until they are formally dating my main sim, but I wouldn't mind knowing if it could be done earlier, just in case I find myself in circumstances where it might make sense...

Though the topic of "what lots can I add" has been brought up many times already, I'm here to dredge it back up again! Specifically, I had a crack at fleshing out Newcrest using the metric of "any Maxis lot that provides something the built-in ones elsewhere don't is allowed", and in amongst the spas and restaurants I found a pair of lots that occupy something of a grey area. Luxe Health Club, from the Spa Day pack, is listed as a gym but has plenty of spa equipment as well, and Vital Climb Gym... well, okay, it's a gym, and I really don't think it should count, but I was desperate enough for 40x30 lots that I justified its inclusion by it being the only Maxis lot to offer climbing walls and now I'd like someone to tell me that's a bit of a stretch...

When it comes to mods, I usually play with a few that don't affect gameplay and thus I would assume are okay: CleanUI (a return to the previous colour-coded one), Smaller Mosaic, TidyCAS, More CAS Columns and a handful of sliders for increasing the diversity of body shapes, facial details, height and so on. But then there are two others...

I like RoBurky's Fitness Controls since it gives you the power to change both the fat/muscle range for sims and their "metabolic rate", so to speak. By default, it slows things down, so that weight and muscle changes make a lot more sense when playing with long lifespans... or even normal ones, judging by my test game! As far as I know, sims' fat/muscle levels have no effect on the gameplay and are purely cosmetic; they're not even tied to the Fitness skill, I think, but since I'm not hugely experienced in the game's mechanics I'm willing to be corrected. The only thing I could think of was the Athletic aspiration and its goal of attaining "maximum body potential" - a little testing suggests this triggers when a sim reaches +80% muscle, so as long as the mod is set up to increase the range by more than the metabolic rate is lowered (which it is by default*), this goal will actually be harder to reach!

The other mod I use is, on the face of it, a no-go: MCCC. But, due to its modular nature, it's possible to strip out all of the game-changing stuff (story progression, automatic repopulation, etc.) while keeping the basics in play. The main feature I'd love to be able to keep is its autosave, but there's also the Dresser module that helps stops townies from being so unfashionable (though without the Population module I'm not sure how much it can do), aging and death notifications for NPCs ('cause I like to keep tabs on how the worlds are doing and it saves having to trawl the Unplayed Households list every now and again) and automatically pausing on arriving at a lot (because seriously). All that said, while I am reasonably confident in my ability to set the mod up so that it only does permissible things, you'd only have my word for it, and it's entirely possible that it'll act in ways that I can't anticipate or even see, so it would be entirely understandable if it were considered verboten. I probably wouldn't even ask after it if it weren't for that incredibly appealing autosave...

...that's an awful lot of text there, considering that none of my issues are all too big, so thanks in advance for any answers/counsel/healthy doses of realism!

(*specifically, a base-game percentage point is weighted by 4/7 and is covered at 1/3 of the rate, thus taking ~1.7x as long, and my current settings have the weighting as 2/3 and the rate as 2/5, which would be only marginally faster than that)

You can add spouses after you move.

Custom Content and Premium Content are fine and are to be used at your own risk. No mods or cheats are allowed with a few exceptions: lighting mods that change the look of the game are fine; Moveobjects is fine; some bugs may creep up that a mod could fix, but team permission is always necessary in these cases.

These mods have been approved by the challenge team. If you want to use a mod but its not on this list, please contact the team for approval.-- Any lightning mods to make indoor lights brighter.-- Live Mode and Tab Mode Camera Mods - No Drift & Lower Level!-- CAS Modifiers bugfix: Aging & Randomization-- Smaller Censor / Mosaic-- Daily Save Mod

No other mods are allowed if you are planning on going for Hall Of Fame.

Thanks for the response! The sanctioned mod list in particular is a great help; even if it does feel a little brave, I figure I may as well aim for the Hall Of Fame, so I'm prepared to go (almost) unmodded. That there is a recommended autosave mod on there pretty much invalidates my risky bid for MCCC's, and having played around with normal gamespeed a little more, I'd already kinda talked myself out of roBurky's Fitness Controls anyway, especially since I can replicate a lot of the aesthetic variety I'd like with CAS sliders. I had also thought in the past about getting some kind of lighting mod, so I appreciate that my reminder to do so comes in the form of a statement of their acceptance! With any luck, I might get the chance to start this evening... fingers crossed...